Konica Minolta, Inc.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Hitoshi Asano

Yumiko Izumiya

Akimasa Ishikawa

Hirotada Seki

Kazutoshi Yoshimura

Yasuo Koyanagi

Hiroyuki Yoshikawa

Masayuki Watanabe

Atsushi Takahashi

Tomonobu Tamura

Hiroshi Yamaguchi

Takashi Watanabe

Satoshi Ogata

Daichi Suzuki

Masahiro Kamiya

Teruhiko Toyoizumi

Toshikazu Higashi

Katsuhide Sakai

Yoshiki Katayama

Harumitsu Fujimori

Masahiro Nonoyama

Hiroaki Takatsu

Yasuhiro Koide

Yukinobu Iguchi

Shigetaka Kato

Takeshi Nomura

Takafumi Tanaka

A sheet characteristic detection device includes: a detector that is disposed on a sheet ejection path through which a sheet is ejected and that detects an electrical resistance value of the sheet; and a charge neutralizer that is disposed on a downstream side of the detector on the sheet ejection path and that neutralizes electric charge on the sheet.

Sheet characteristic detection device, image forming system including the same, and image forming apparatus

Paper physical property detecting device includes a first detector that measures a sheet of paper (hereinafter, merely referred to as a paper) made to stop temporarily on a conveyance path and acquires a first value corresponding to a first physical property, a second detector that measures a paper while conveying the paper on the conveyance path and acquires a second value corresponding to a second physical property with regard to a physical property different from the first physical property; and a corrector that corrects the first value on a basis of the second value and creates post correction data.

Paper physical property detecting device, image forming apparatus, paper physical property detecting method, and computer readable recording medium storing control program

An image forming apparatus includes an image former that forms an image on a sheet of paper, a detector that detects a physical property of a sheet of paper, a receiver that receives paper identification information used in identification of a sheet of paper designated by a user, and a hardware processor. The hardware processor performs: first judgement of judging whether or not there is a correspondence between the paper identification information received by the receiver and a detection result by the detector, second judgement of judging whether or not there is a correspondence between a detection result by the detector of a first sheet of paper conveyed and a detection result by the detector of a second sheet of paper conveyed; and operation control of the image former based on a first judgement result in the first judgement and a second judgement result in the second judgement.

Image forming apparatus

Provided are an image forming system and a method for detecting glossiness capable of accurately detecting glossiness in various media having different conditions. The image forming system includes a sensor unit including a light source that irradiates a medium being conveyed with light and a gloss sensor that receives light emitted from the light source and specularly reflected on the medium and detects a diffusion distribution of light in the medium, and a detection condition setting unit that identifies a type of the medium being conveyed and sets a light amount of the light source and/or exposure time of the gloss sensor at the time of glossiness detection in accordance with the type of the medium. The image forming system further includes a glossiness detector that detects glossiness of the medium from a diffusion distribution of light detected by the gloss sensor under the detection condition set by the detection condition setting unit.

Image forming system and method for detecting glossiness

To provide a sheet conveyance device capable of preventing degradation in quality of conveying a sheet and image quality even when a stiffness of the sheet is different between a sheet conveyance direction and a sheet width direction. A sheet conveyance device of an image forming apparatus includes an image forming part that conveys a sheet along a conveyance path; and a stiffness acquisition part that acquires a stiffness of the sheet in a first direction including a component in the sheet conveyance direction by bending the sheet in the first direction, and acquires a stiffness of the sheet in a second direction including a component in the sheet width direction orthogonal to the sheet conveyance direction by bending the sheet in the second direction.

Sheet conveyance device and image forming apparatus

A glossiness inspection device includes an illumination device that emits irradiation light to a glossiness detection target and a light receiving device that receives reflected light of the irradiation light reflected by the glossiness detection target and outputs a light reception detection signal according to an amount of the received light. A dimmer of the device adjusts an amount of the irradiation light, and a detection signal adjuster of the device adjusts a gain for amplifying the light reception detection signal. An irradiation position controller of the device selectively irradiates a first gloss region and a second gloss region of a correction plate with the irradiation light. A hardware processor of the device adjusts at least one of the amount of the irradiation light, an offset of the detection signal adjuster, a characteristic straight line for calculating a glossiness, or a calculated glossiness.

Glossiness inspection device, glossiness inspection method, and image forming apparatus

A measuring device, includes a physical property value detector and a push contact member that pushes to bring a sheet material in contact with the physical property value detector; and further includes a first processor that stops conveyance of the sheet material, pushes to bring the sheet material in contact with the physical property value detector, and detects a physical property value of the sheet material; a second processor that, after having detected the physical property value, cancels the pushing by the push contact member, separates the sheet material from the physical property value detector, and starts conveyance of the sheet material; and a physical property value specifier that specifies the physical property value on a basis of physical property values of a plurality of positions within a surface of the sheet material detected by executing the first processing and the second processing repeatedly.

Measuring device, image forming apparatus, and measuring method

A paper conveyance device includes: an upstream roller and a downstream roller being arranged at an interval in a paper conveyance path; paper conveyance guides being arranged between the upstream and downstream roller in the paper conveyance path to guide both surfaces of paper along the paper conveyance path during paper conveyance; drivers that drive the upstream and downstream roller independently; and a processor that measures the load torques on the upstream and downstream roller, that judges whether or not the paper is rubbing against one of the paper conveyance guides with reference to the load torques on the upstream and downstream roller, the load torques being obtained by the processor, and that performs controlled paper conveyance with reference to the load torques on the upstream and downstream roller depending on the result of the judgment being obtained by the processor.

Paper conveyance device, image forming apparatus, paper conveyance control method, and recording medium

A reading apparatus that reads a sheet includes: a first light emitting diode (LED) configured to emit light with a specific wavelength; a light emitting element including a second LED configured to emit light with the specific wavelength and a phosphor configured to be excited by the light emitted from the second LED; a line sensor configured to generate a reference signal according to a quantity of received light emitted from the first LED and reflected off the sheet, and also generate an image signal according to a quantity of received light emitted from the light emitting element and reflected off the sheet; and a controller configured to generate an image representing the sheet from a differential result obtained by removing a component corresponding to the reference signal from the image signal.

Reading apparatus, reading method, and reading program

An image forming apparatus includes: a fixing unit configured to include at least a first and second radiation heaters capable of heating printing medium; a power supply unit configured to supply power to the first and second radiation heaters; and a controller configured to select either one of the first and second radiation heaters and control to light or turn off the selected radiation heater, wherein a heating width of the printing medium of the second radiation heater is wider than that of the first radiation heater, and the controller determines whether to preheat the second radiation heater based on the number of times of lighting of the first and second radiation heaters and controls to light and turn off the second radiation heater when the controller has determined that it is necessary to preheat the second radiation heater.

In a paper folding device, a first driving unit for forming a first folding line on the paper moves a first folding plate member to the paper fed to a first feeding position until load on the first folding plate member reaches a prescribed value or higher. A time period from the start of driving of the first folding unit by the first driving unit to the start of driving of a second folding unit by a second driving unit is determined based on characteristic of paper.

Paper folding device for three-folding sheet of paper

A document feeder feeds document sheets one by one from a stack on a tray by pressing one or more pick-up rollers against an uppermost document sheet and guiding one widthwise edge of the document sheet. The width direction is perpendicular to a document transport direction. The document feeder includes: a document size obtainer that obtains size information indicating a width of the document sheet; and a center-of-contact shifting mechanism that shifts a center of contact of each pick-up roller along an axial direction of the pick-up roller according to the obtained size information. The center of contact is a central point of an area where the pick-up roller is in contact with the document sheet. Each pick-up roller is in a barrel shape. The center-of-contact shifting mechanism shifts the center of contact of each pick-up roller by axially tilting the pick-up roller relative to the document surface.

Document feeder, document reader, and image forming apparatus with improved accuracy of document skew correction

An image forming apparatus outputting a color image and a monochrome image obtains data for output image by RIP-convert of accepted image data, and extracts feature of the data for output image. When the data for output image is determined to correspond to a color image, the image forming apparatus outputs a color image corresponding to the data for output image, on condition that the feature satisfies a determination reference.

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Toyokawa, Japan

Hitoshi Asano